$11-Million Goal Set at Drew University

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, one of only four medical schools operated by African-Americans in the United States, is attempting to raise $11 million over the next three years to expand its research and training facilities.

Doctors say the university’s ability to serve the growing medical needs of the African-American community will depend in part on the success of the Capital Campaign.

“We’ve grown out of our research space,” said Stanette Kennebrew, vice president and chief financial officer at Drew. “It’s time to move to the next stage of development.” The 26-year-old campus, on East 120th Street between Compton and Wilmington avenues, includes colleges of medicine and allied health, a Head Start program, a Los Angeles Unified School District medical magnet program and a child care center.

University officials have raised about $650,000 in cash and in-kind contributions toward an initial $1-million goal, dubbed Project One Million. The remaining $350,000 is expected to be raised by the end of the fiscal year, Kennebrew said.

The $11 million, which officials hope to raise by July, 1995, will go toward establishing the university’s Center for the Future of Children, a facility that will house programs for children, teen-agers and college students.

University officials view the two fund-raising campaigns--the initial $1 million campaign and a drive to raise $10 million more by 1995--as part of an economic development plan to draw investment into the area around the university and the county’s accompanying Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

“Economic development of this community is intertwined with the survival of the people who live in this community,” university President Reed V. Tuckson said. “People without hope do not take the advice of health professionals.”